UPDATED 4:36 A.M. ET FEB. 16 U.S.A. “Achieve Community” members this evening are circulating on Facebook a screen shot from a forum post attributed to Michigan-based co-founder Troy Barnes that claims “Achieve’s assets have been frozen.”
Members say the post appeared earlier today in Achieve’s recently installed private forum.
“I am facing criminal charges,” the post reads in part. It is dated today (Feb. 14), includes the Achieve logo and is headlined, “Weekend Update.”
The post did not identify the agency that purportedly launched a criminal investigation into Barnes. Nor did it say how long Barnes had been under investigation, when he found out about it and what person or agency informed him he was facing criminal charges.
Nor did the post identify the agency that requested the freeze and the judge who imposed it.
Whether an action by a specific law-enforcement agency led to the asserted freeze also was not addressed in the post. The post claims “Kristi has fled from USA” after she “had been talking to the Attorney general in Colorado for many weeks.”
The post did not substantiate the claim “Kristi” had fled. Nor did it substantiate the claim “Kristi” had been talking to Colorado’s Attorney General for weeks or say why they’d been talking. It is unclear if Achieve still was gathering money while these purported talks occurred. Achieve appears to have been trying to create and implement a new payment conduit as recently as Friday.
Kristi Johnson of the Denver region is Achieve’s other co-founder, according to Achieve’s websites at ReadyToAchieve.com and TheAchieveCommunity.com. The sites remains online. For at least two days, this message has appeared when the “Join Now!” button is accessed through the “Sign Up” page: “We are temporarily under maintenance – sorry for the inconvenience.”
The office of Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman did not immediately return a call from the PP Blog Saturday night requesting comment. The Blog confirmed in January that Achieve was under investigation by the Colorado Division of Securities, which is not part of the Attorney General’s office.
The two Colorado agencies, however, have a history of working together on cases involving allegations of securities fraud. From time to time, such cases have led to criminal charges of theft and racketeering.
County-level prosecutors in Colorado also have worked with state and federal investigators to bring racketeering charges in securities-fraud cases.
Andrea Bitely, the communications director and press secretary for Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, said yesterday that the Attorney General’s office does not comment on investigations. BehindMLM.com reported yesterday that Achieve was under investigation by Schuette’s Consumer Protection Division.
Like Colorado, Michigan has a racketeering statute that has been used in investment-fraud cases. (See one example. See another. See a third.)
In 2013, a now-former Michigan state Legislator pleaded no contest to criminal charge of Neglect of Duty by a Public Official. Schuette’s office said the onetime lawmaker carried a cell phone provided by a scammer running a $9 million Ponzi scheme and “answered calls from potential investors even while on the House floor.”
At least one Achieve member has claimed on Facebook that Johnson has not fled and that Barnes is telling vicious lies, according to a post on the RealScam.com antiscam forum.
A Twitter account linked to Johnson disappeared today. So did at least one Facebook site.